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Louis Spier Robertson (b. 5 August 1868, d. 17 April 1932)

Louis Spier Robertson (son of Albert Louis Robertson and Isabella Spier) was born 5 August 1868 in Sydney, Australia, and died 17 April 1932 in Dural Street, Hornsby. He married Elizabeth Frances(Lily) Leighton on 21 April 1896 in Saint Pauls Cathedral, Rockhampton, daughter of James Bennett Leighton and Jane Anne Norman.

Notes for Louis Spier Robertson:
Louis was an Architect, he first practiced in Rockhampton, then returned to Sydney in 1904.

"Rose Chambers" 60 Castlereagh Street, Sydney and later 16-20 Bridge Street, Sydney

resided at "Birklands" Hornsby in 1906 - Sands Directory.

The citadel-like Salvation Army Hall at Braddon, ACT was opened in 1929. Architects Louis S. Robertson and Son designed the brick exterior with vestigial turrets and Classical details. A coved ceiling spans the handsome interior.

Louis S. Robertson received early training as a carpenter and joiner, but by 1896 he had started practice as an architect at Rockhampton, Queensland. He designed domestic and commercial work in the then local idiom until 1904 when he returned to Sydney where he gradually he formed a sound practice that endures to this day.

In 1906, he was living in Hornsby at "Birklands", Dural Street, now known as 52 Dural Street(until his death in 1932)

In 1910, he contributed to Australian architectural history with his still-existing Nelson House in Clarence Street, the design of which caused great distress ot the city council by ignoring wall-thickening regulations and seeking to carry the weights of the nine-storey building on steel columns and beams - a new-fangled idea of frame that was to sweep through Australian constructional thought, even though it may have considerably upset the tranquility of authority in the first few instances. The Council was still nervous when finally it reluctantly approved the plans of Nelson House on 12 April 1910, "Subject to the steelwork being of requisite strength." The contract for Nelson House was for the sum of 12,758 pounds/16/3. The modern firm recently re-estimated the cost of the building at today's prices and arrived at the figure of 77,000pounds. The fenestration of the building is worth mentioning, for in an era when architects thought that the epitome of architectural beauty was to be found in the greatest number of different-shaped and over-ornamented windows that could be crowded into a building, Nelson House was lit by a restrained series of similar units that gives a strong hint of the "glass wall" of modern times.

From Rockhampton, Louis S. Robertson brought to Sydney his son, the third of his name, Louis Leighton Robertson, he was the principal of the firm of Louis S Robertson and Son since the dearth of his father in 1932.

LSR - cause of death: bad heart

Played organ in Church at Hornsby

More About Louis Spier Robertson and Elizabeth Frances(Lily) Leighton:
Marriage: 21 April 1896, Saint Pauls Cathedral, Rockhampton.

Children of Louis Spier Robertson and Elizabeth Frances(Lily) Leighton are:

+Louis Leighton Robertson, b. 1 February 1897, The Range, Rockhampton, Qld, Australia, d. 17 December 1966, Turramurra Private Hospital, Sydney, Australia.
+Norman Howard Robertson, b. 29 July 1898, ?, d. date unknown, Brisbane, Queensland(committed suicide).
+Francis Edward Robertson, b. 1900, ?, d. 1940, Baulkham Hills.